On June 6th, 2016, Janet Yellen, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Patrick Harker, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, paid a visit to the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative to learn more about the WPSI program. During their visit, Chair Yellen and Mr. Harker learned about the work being done by WPSI to connect unemployed residents of West Philadelphia to the growing job opportunities in the neighborhood.
Chair Yellen and Mr. Harker met current training participants of the program, as well as several graduates who are now working within the community. The discussion was focused on the challenges of finding work and the benefits of the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative workforce development training. Chair Yellen spoke of the Federal Reserve’s focus on jobs and its goal of creating an economy where people are able to find employment, and then listened as WPSI participants laid out their backgrounds, struggle to find jobs, and how going through the Skills Initiative program gave them the skills and confidence to obtain employment. All of our current and former participants expressed their gratitude for the program, and a common theme was how participating in WPSI opened doors that they believed were closed to them.
- A video of the complete conversation can be found by visiting Bloomberg’s website.
- Read The New York Times’ Coverage of Yellen’s Visit
- Newsworks Covered the Visit and Interviewed a Current Participant
Below see more photos from Chair Yellen’s visit in this interactive gallery. Learn more about the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative here.
